Teach English in Dingshui Zhen - Liaocheng Shi

For many new teachers just the consideration of possibly having to manage a class, let alone having to manage a large class can be understandably daunting. In this paper I’m going to outline fours ways any teacher can jumpstart classroom management with a new class or with an existing class. Granted there are a variety of methods that are effective when it comes to managing classes, but I would like to focus on the following four: classroom rule, setting expectations, supplementary tasks and developing a rewards system. There are so many contributing factors that impact how the first day of a class goes, and the first day of the class may very well impact how the remainder of the semester goes. That being said it’s important to start off on the right side of things. In terms of classroom management that means implementing classroom rules from the very beginning. If classroom rules aren’t established right away they become harder to implement, as the students become comfortable with the lack of set rules. Establishing classroom rules for young learner is different from primary age students and older. With primary students, teachers should aim to illustrate a couple of examples such as “raise your hands to speak” or “ be polite” then let the students contribute and establish the rules they want to follow. This can be a great opportunity for the teacher to task the students to collaborate in small groups and also maximize students talk time, as well as student to student interaction. In contrast, establishing classroom rules for younger learners (Kindergarten age) can be quite fun and easy to do. Youngers learners, particularly in kindergarten age can’t read or write, so establishing rules with them requires the use TPR (Total Physical Response). Using TPR the teacher can teach the class a set of rules to follow by getting the class to stand up and imitate the teacher. Naturally the students will be motivated to learn the rules because there is movement involved. Furthermore, the Lesson can be even more fun if some humor is added by adding silly rules such as “no kissing” and “no fighting”, which would naturally include a demonstration by the teacher of some energetic karate move to appease to the students sense of fun. Setting expectations is an important aspect of developing good classroom management techniques. It’s important that we take the time to think about what kinds of expectations we have of our students and how we can help them achieve them. Primary level students for instance, have the fluency to communicate with foreign teachers, but lack the accuracy. In order to avoid having the students in this level speak their native language in class and as a means to maximize their use of English in class to communicate directly with the foreign teacher, it’s a good idea to teach them some useful classroom language. Classroom language taught to primary level students could include the following: - Teacher, may I go to the washroom? - May I borrow a/an ____? - Teacher, how do you spell ___? - What does ____ means? - Pardon me? - Please speak slowly - May I please go and drink some water? Having this kind of useful language posted in your classroom someplace visible can really empower the students to feel more confident about communicating with both the teacher and with their peers. Granted, some of these sentence structures may have to be taught to the class, but after they learn it, it will become a powerful and effective tool. Every class has a few advance students that always seem to finish the task at hand rather quickly. These students can sometimes become disruptive, not because they’re bad students, but rather because they are bored and they need to be kept preoccupied. It is a challenge for teachers to always try and create balanced lesson plans that cater to all the student’s levels in a class. Even a class that has students in the same grade will vary in ability. That being said, it’s imperative that teachers come to class well equipped with supplementary activities such as worksheets (crossword puzzles, word search) or reading materials that will appeal to the fast tract students, perhaps age appropriate comics strips. Alternatively, if there are no worksheets available the teacher can choose to have the students who are finished assist them by handing out books or tidying up the class, while the others are finishing up. Lastly, let’s look at how implementing a points reward system can help teachers manage large classrooms in particular. In class with more than 30 students, getting things done can be hectic, especially when the students and the teacher can’t communicated accurately using the same language. It may be a good idea for teachers who have large classes ranging from 30-45 students to do the following each lesson in order to save time, create a couple of extra minutes or divert breakdowns in communications: - Divide the class into groups according to rows or tables - Designate a different team leader at the beginning of each lesson, who will be responsible for their group - Label each of the individual groups and perhaps allow them each a couple of minutes each class to choose their group names - Reward the groups collectively with points - You may choose to give points for participation, collaboration, correct answers, use of target language etc. - You may also take away points as a means of punishment or deterrence Rewarding and punching groups collectively is an effective method of managing large classes in particular because it does the following 3 things: One, it keeps the students in check when they see their peers suffer a consequences that that don’t want to suffer. Two, it’s makes them responsible for each other and each others actions. In a way, it motivates them to police each other to behave better, because they know that if they are caught doing something wrong they all suffer the loss collectively. Lastly, this kind of group involvement helps the students to be more conscious of one another, thereby becoming more considerate of each other’s opinions when it matters. In sum, although classroom management is one of the most challenging aspects of teaching that can take years to master, it can be manageable with the right tools, namely by making sure classroom rules are established, expectations are set, the students are rewarded and punished accordingly and that supplementary activities are readily available for advanced students. As I have outlined any teacher, particularly new teachers can jump-start their classroom management capabilities by implementing the following techniques into their lessons.